halve an onion and thinly slice itchop the stems off the fennel bulb and remove and save the leafiesfinely chop the fennel stems (the green part)quarter the bulb and thinly slice it (similar to the onion)chop the leafies of the fennel and put them to the side

boil some water and cook your pasta

into a dry pan on med heat, toast the walnuts until they become fragrant and set asidein the same panadd some nice big glugs of olive oilover med-hi, add the chopped stems and cook for about 3 minthen add the onions and the fennel bulbs along with some salt and a tad of peppercook for about 8 minutes or so, then add enough glugs of wine to bathe all of the goodiescook that until thinks are tender-crisp and the stems are no longer tough

when the pasta is about 1 min away from done, add it to the fennel and stir for about 1 minglug some wine in if too dryadd a flourish of olive oil, fennel leafies, and walnuts, tossand serve

put water on to boilchop garlic clove and add to a few tablespoons olive oil in a cold pan along with red pepperturn heat to medium as you chop the chardonce garlic becomes very lighly browned and fragrant add chard and wiltflake the tuna unto the chard and mixadd enough wine to bathe the chard and turn to low simmer and cover

cook pastawhen pasta is about 1 minute from done, add to chard and cook for another minute along with a flourish of fresh oil

serve with fresh graded pecorino

I would love this dish, light, a bit more savory, with something like a Falanghina or Tocai Friulano. Erbaluce would do well, as would. But I could do something crazy like Emilio Bulfon's Cividin. Yum.

But alas, I had no Italian white. Only Vietti's '04 "Perbacco" Langhe Nebbiolo staring up at me, longingly. Both of these dishes were made with and served with a domestic wine. Chehalem's 2006 Pinot Blanc. Richer styled than most Italian Pinot Bianco, with some hefty ripeness and a tad but of neutral barrel aging for some viscosity. But quite tasty. This would have done better with something a bit richer, some sort of gratin or roasted root veggies. A really tasty wine, which reminded me of some $15-20 Bourgogne Blancs. Really cool, and I appreciate what Chehalem is doing (especially with riesling), except for letting the alcohol in their (previously lovely) INOX Chard to get out of control. Even when things aren't perfect, it's fun.